A makeshift memorial with crosses for the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre stands outside a home in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14. / Robert F. Bukaty, AP

by Elizabeth Weise, USATODAY

by Elizabeth Weise, USATODAY

A Tennessee charity raising money to honor the victims of the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., is unable to account for $70,000 of the funds.

Ryan Graney, one of the co-founders of 26.4.26, came forward Friday to say that only $30,000 of the $103,000 raised has been accounted for. She told the Associated Press that she presented that money early last year to the Newtown Youth Academy, a non-profit youth sports center.

A posting on the foundation's Facebook account dated Dec. 20 said: "Due to the founders (sic) transgressions and misconduct we were forced to end all ability for 26.4.26 to collect money. Especially after it was revealed that foundation money was spent on personal items." It is unclear who made the posting.

The 26.4.26 Foundation was the brainchild of Robbie Bruce, an endurance athlete in Nashville. He helped raise money through marathons in which people dedicated each mile of a 26-mile marathon to one of the 26 victims of the shooting on Dec. 14, 2012.

The foundation is registered as a non-profit corporation in Tennessee. The attorney general's office in Connecticut, which has been keeping track of charities that sprang up after the shooting, had no knowledge of the foundation.

The Facebook posting ended with: "When asked about the state of the bank account a straight answer was never given and to this day, we have not seen the bank account. We are saddened to see this great movement come to such a crumbling and embarrassing end. We fought so hard to do good and in the end 26.4.26 was taken advantage of and for that we are sorry."

After Graney, of Nashville, presented a check for $30,000 to the Academy in January 2013, she began to have suspicions about Bruce and the money that had been raised last spring. She saw a charge of $1,200 for paddle boards on the foundation's PayPal account, and later when she went on Bruce's Instagram page, he had posted a photo of a paddle board in the back of his truck, she told the AP.

When Graney confronted Bruce, she said he promised to meet her and go over the organization's finances. But he didn't show up at the meeting and since then has cut off all contact with her. "I am in tears, sick about this," Graney told the AP on Friday.

Graney says she has filed complaints with the FBI and the Tennessee attorney general's office.

Bruce is an endurance athlete and runner. The foundation received extensive coverage in local media and in the running community, including a January 2013 article in the magazine Runner's World.

The foundation began as a small run in Nashville just two weeks after the shooting. It proved so successful that Bruce went on to create the foundation to continue the work, he told Runner's World. The 26.4.26 Foundation received donations from other runners and marathons, including one in Gilford, N.H., organized by the principal of a local elementary school, the magazine reported.

One poster on Facebook said that her husband had run in the Gilford marathon and that she ordered and was charged for three shirts, which never arrived.